According to keyboardist Dennis DeYoung, the album's theme was the struggle to overcome self-deluding superficiality in order to affirm one's genuine value.[citation needed] This theme was reflected in the lyrics of the album's title track:

So if you think your life is complete confusion

'cause your neighbor's got it made

just remember that it's a grand illusion

and deep inside we're all the same

The title of The Grand Illusion had been considered dating back to the 1975 album Equinox.

The album cover art, created by Alton Kelley and Stanley Mouse, is an homage to a painting by René Magritte entitled "Le Blanc-Seing". It is also similar to the even earlier avant garde painting "L'Incantation ou Le Bois Sacré" by Paul Sérusier.